My ever-under-construction website will eventually feature a fairly exhaustive FAQ. I’ve got a bunch of questions, and managed to lose a whole bunch more (I’m gifted that way). Occasionally I ask myself if I’m missing some important questions.

Then I realized the blog might be a good testing ground for current questions – Did I cover everything? Was it a clear explanation? – and an opportunity to collect new questions.

With that in mind, let’s start with the basics (and – full disclosure – some that are kind to my wallet);

Q: Y’know, come to think of it, I don’t know all the cards you’ve done.
A: Click the handy Gatherer link up on the right column. It’ll take you to a visual spoiler of every Magic card I’ve done artwork for. Not for the faint-of-bandwidth.

Q: Do you have prints for sale?
A: Yup again. Currently 60 different ones. They’re $12 plus shipping and are printed on high quality archival paper stock. My email is linked at the top of the blogs right column, so drop me a line and I’ll send you a list.

Q: Do you have Artist Proofs for sale?
A: Yes indeed. Prices vary as does shipping depending on how many you want. Drop me a line for a complete list.

Q: Do you have original art for sale? Magic art?
A: Astonishingly, yes. I held on to almost all of my originals until I could buy a scanner that could make satisfactory high-end archival scans so that I could ensure I had an excellent digital copy of the image before the original left my hands . I picked up a great scanner a few years ago and have slowly been selling pieces ever since. Drop me a line and – surprise! – I will send you a list.

Q: How much do Magic originals cost?
A: Mine run the gamut from $450 to $1600 with most sitting at $950. That price includes Fed-Ex two day shipping with insurance. Shipping outside the U.S.A. costs up to $80 extra. Originals from Doomtown and V:Tes tend to be $300 to 650 in price.

Q: Are Phyrexian Dreadnought, Baron Sengir and the Abyss available?
A: Nope, sorry. Not every high profile card is gone, however. Check the list.

Q: Do you have any original sketches for your Magic cards?
A: Yeah, though those are less well documented. Ask and I’ll let you know if what you’re interested in is available.

So, got an idea for a FAQ entry? Drop me a line in the comments here, on the various message boards I inhabit or at my email linked above (that right column again).

Today I have a really weird piece for the comic book fans among you. But first a little backstory;

From 1985 to 1997 London was home to the United Kingdom Comic Art Convention. The UK didn’t have many comic cons and this one, while far smaller than many American shows, was eagerly anticipated every year by UK comic fans as an unprecedented opportunity to talk to the major comic companies and to rub shoulders with British and American creators, though in the case of the creators, you usually had to track them down in the on-site bar. No, really.

These were amazing cons. I got to meet Alan Moore, Steve Bissette and John Totleben during the height of their work on Swamp Thing and was at the talk where Moore first revealed his idea for a little upcoming comic called Watchmen. I got to chat to Brian Bolland, whose linework I’d long worshiped on such strips as Judge Dredd. Anyway, I could goob for days but let’s get to the point of this tale…

Like most comic cons, there was an accompanying con-booklet bursting with new images from fresh and established talent. One year I decided to give it a try because I’d gotten a mad idea that didn’t want to shut up and leave my brain.

Tidbit #1; By now you’ve probably heard of Neil Gaiman. At that time, he was mostly known for his comic book Sandman which features Dream, the personification and master of dreams and his six siblings collectively known as The Endless. The most popular and enduring of these personifications is Death, who appears as a cute gothy girl with an unusually sunny disposition given her rather harsh vocation.

Tidbit #2; 2000AD has been the most popular comic in the UK for decades. And no character is more popular than Judge Dredd, the toughest cop in the harsh Mega-City of the future. From a rich rogues gallery that’s been developed over 34 years, no enemy deserves the rank of nemesis more than Judge Death, a member of the Dark Judges, a dark mirror to Dredd from a dimension where it was decreed that all crime was committed by the living and so their perverse logic made life a crime.

I always imagine pieces of fantasy artwork as windows into another world. Given that, I find an artist’s signature that is very visible, even dominating, to be very jarring and disruptive when attempting to soak in a scene.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s no right way to do these things. Some people’s signatures are practically a work of art unto themselves. Others, are vivid stamps of ownership. That’s just not to my taste.

In most of my pieces I keep my signature subtle, using colors from within the image and only rarely placing them against strongly contrasting colors. There are some Magic pieces where the only way you would ever see the signature would be to hold the original painting; the signature is minutely different in color to its background.